Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.
at their cores, stars of all sizes collapse under their own gravity, dying to form a dense cosmic remnant like a. Our own star, the sun, will meet this fate in around 5 billion years, first swelling out as a red giant and obliterating the inner planets, including Earth. After around 1 billion years, this phase, too, will end, leaving the core of the sun as a white dwarf ember surrounded by a cloud of cosmic ashes in the form of cooling stellar material.
John added these S-cluster stars, which lie within around three light-years of the very heart of our galaxy, also seem to be much younger than would be expected if the stars had migrated to this region from elsewhere in the Milky Way."Even more mysteriously, not only do the stars look unusually young, but there are fewer older stars than expected," she continued."Additionally, it seems like there are unexpectedly many heavy stars.
Scientists can only infer the presence of dark matter because it interacts with gravity, and this interaction can affect ordinary matter and indeed light. IfWhat is less certain is whether dark matter interacts with itself. To understand what this means, remember that ordinary matter particles all have an antimatter version of themselves. For instance, there is a positively charged antiparticle called a positron for a negatively charged electron.
"For most of a star's life, these processes happen primarily in the core of the star, where the gravitational pressure is highest," John said."We show that if stars collect a large amount of dark matter, which then annihilates inside the star, it can also provide an outward pressure, making the star stable due to dark matter annihilation rather than nuclear fusion. So, stars can use dark matter as a fuel instead of hydrogen.
"Our findings tell us that dark matter can scatter with ordinary particles, which is required to slow down the dark matter particles inside the star to capture them — also, that dark matter particles can annihilate with each other," she said."By observing the distribution of immortal stars around the Galactic Center, we would also get some information about the distribution and density of dark matter around the Galactic Center.
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